Academy Award-winning director Andrea Arnold (American Honey, Fish Tank) helms Bird, the coming of age drama on a young girl, played by newcomer Nykiya Adams, as she navigates her adolescence while dealing with her absent father and an intriguing new friend.
The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and has since been screened at other film festivals including the 49th Toronto International Film Festival, and the 51st Telluride Film Festival. The film is currently screening at the 2024 BFI London Film Festival and is next scheduled to screen at the 11th Miami Film Festival GEMS. Bird is set to compete at the European Film Awards later this year.
Bird stars Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, Jason Buda, Frankie Box, Jasmine Jobson, Joanne Matthews, James Nelson-Joyce, and Sarah Beth Harber.
Release Date
Directed by Andrea Arnold, Bird opens in theaters in the US, Canada, UK & Ireland on November 8, 2024.
Synopsis
12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
“Sometimes I challenge myself with the characters and make them not very easy to know. It’s almost like I make it more difficult every time; I don’t know why,” says Andrea Arnold on her journey creating the story for the film in a Notebook interview. “This film [Bird] felt the hardest. I’ve always had this idea that if you look at anyone long enough, you’ll find the humanity in them and you’ll have empathy for whoever they are, no matter what they might have done.”
Reviews
Ryan Lattanzio in an IndieWire review gave the film a score of B, writing, “There’s also no better filmmaker to capture the messy, often bodily particulars of a young woman’s coming of age, and that hunter-like, patient approach pays off in her collaboration with Nykiya Adams, whose tenacious without ever being grating, vulnerable without ever being weak.”
Donald Clarke in an Irish Times review gave the film a score of 4/5, writing, “A film that showcases Arnold’s gifts – the artful shepherding of apparent chaos – while allowing new and surprising elements. Not everyone will approve of the big swing here. But few will resist the richness and fullness of her characterisation.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for Bird.